A Lords battle in Hollywood

Monday 20 January 2014 13:55 BST

Julian Fellowes and Michael Dobbs swapped the red leather benches of the Lords, where they both sit, for the red carpet of Hollywood yesterday. Fellowes’ Downton Abbey was up against Dobbs’ House of Cards in the best TV drama category in the Producers Guild Awards last night.

Dobbs missed the Golden Globes because he was leading a debate on the European referendum but there were no excuses this time. “I’m about to battle it out with Julian Fellowes,” he emailed to say, before (correctly) predicting they would both be beaten by Breaking Bad. He forgot to say Fellowes should have championed both shows — long before he started writing Downton, he was an extra on the set of the original House of Cards.